There came a time during the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s hearing Monday when Las Vegas Republican Michele Fiore wondered — out loud — why it was that county sheriffs weren’t arresting federal law enforcement officers (she called them “thugs”) for impersonating police officers.

After Steven Horsford’s surprising loss to Republican Cresent Hardy last year, the ousted Democratic representative said he would go on a listening tour to find out why 4th Congressional District voters decided they wanted change.

I asked why, and this is what Heller spokeswoman Chandler Smith wrote back:

“When evaluating this nomination, Senator Heller weighed the value of transparency and disclosure against the need to maintain national security. The Intelligence Committee is a useful tool in striking that balance. In her testimony, Ms. Kass [sic] indicated that she opposed the release of CIA documents on the basis that crucial legal opinions about intelligence matters are beyond the scope of the Intelligence Committee. Senator Heller opposed the nomination due to the lack of clarity regarding whether or not the CIA will cooperate with the Committee and submit to congressional oversight.”

Jay Bybee — the subject of your comment — was elevated to the bench in March 2003, while now-Sen. Heller was still serving as secretary of state of Nevada. Heller was elected to Congress in 2006 and appointed to his Senate seat by Gov. Brian Sandoval in 2011. So, Heller did not have the opportunity to vote on Bybee’s nomination. (The final vote was 74-19 with seven senators not voting; both Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign voted yes, although the full extent of Bybee’s misconduct was not known at the time.) Interestingly, and shockingly, in my view, Bybee is still listed on the website of the Boyd Law School at UNLV as a “senior fellow in constitutional law.”